Picasso's goat

As an art student, I attempted to make some kind of reinterpretation of Picasso’s goat – it was the size of a kid and bright red. It really wasn’t much of a homage.

Years later, I saw the original at the Musee National Picasso in Paris and felt like a little girl in front of his larger than life nanny goat. In cobbling together my kid goat, I’d used a single black and white photocopy of Picasso’s ‘La Chevre’ and was just delighted by all sorts of detail that I’d missed – in the lumpy plaster, the bits of scrap metal, the wicker basket that forms the goat’s rib cage, the ceramic jug udders...

There is something so endearing and humorous – and just so goaty – about it. 

‘La Chevre’, 1950 (cast in bronze in 1952) (http://theotherparis.net)

Picasso and family, including Cabra the goat and Lump the dachshund, at home in Cannes, 1957 (http://www.hrc.utexas.edu)

And here’s another attempt, this time sketched with oil pastels.